Sonisphere 2010

I appear to have run into a bit of a purple patch of luck recently. The most recent realisation of which was my attendance at yesterday's Sonisphere 2010 Festival. One of my longest standing friend's fella bought her tickets for the day for her birthday. He hates rock music so donated his ticket to me - result! I am hugely grateful to them both and have offered my help in redecorating their new home in return!

The whole day was fantastic. Beth had booked us into a hotel for the night so we could drink and be merry without needing to try and exit Knebworth really late at night in the dark when tired. As it was one of the few hotels remaining that had vacant rooms without charging extortionate prices because of the festival we didn't expect much. We arrived to a rather posh establishment that was hosting a wedding party and their reception. We wandered through the throng of people in their wedding finery looking a little out of place in our festival-suitable garb and booked into a gorgeous room.

We managed to share a cab from the hotel to the festival site with a couple from Wakefield who were booking in just as we were arrangign transport there. Shockingly we managed to get a cab driver who had no idea where Knebworth was or that one of the the largest rock/metal festivals in the UK was occurring there this weekend. How was the man still in business?!

When we finally arrived we trundled into the site and wandered about for a bit. Soulfly were already on stage and we listened to them and then Anthrax and Fear Factory while we pootled around the stalls and raided the bar.

The first band we watched proper was Papa Roach. They were pretty cool, although I'm not a huge fan and only really recognised their songs that were around when Beth and I were at college! Oh and they played that track from the Chronicles of Riddick soundtrack.

Apocalyptica were there, as beautiful as ever, with a guest singer too. They did a set of some of their Metallica covers, a few tracks from the last album and the new single from the upcoming album. Can't wait for their next tour!

We wandered around for a bit while Good Charlotte played. Had a blast on the bumper cars (there was a small fairground on site too :)) and munched some suprisingly edible noodles before Skunk Anansie came on. I've missed them! They still rock as hard as they ever did and Skin's vocals are stunning. She had so much energy too, bounding about the stage and singing while crowd surfing - much to the apparent annoyance of security!

We couldn't get into see Minchin do his set - the queue for the Bohemia stage was immense! I'm not heart broken as I saw him on tour last year and have tickets for the new show in December. I did try and get hold of Katy from the TYSIC/Watsonian forum to catch up with her there but with no joy. We did what all sensible girls would do when faced with this dilemma, we went to the bar.

Placebo were suprisingly good. I'm not a fan as such but I do like all of their songs that I've heard. They came on stage all dressed in white, a stark contrast to most other acts there! The set was polished and they were entertaining, good crowd banter and all fab songs that I loved!

We didn't see too much of Motley Crue as we had a powerful rge for donuts when they were on and then we decided to try and get a decent position for Rammstein's set.

Oh my word, Rammstein were as brilliant as I'd been led to believe and more! Such stage presence and a show to seriously impress, on top of outstanding music. The pyrotechnics were bigger than Beth had seen them do before as she'd not seen them open air before so even she was suprised by the extent of the fireworks and flames and everything burning! Loved the cock cannon and the keyboard player crowd surfing in an inflatable boat and stealing hats and flags from the crowd. So much fun.

After their set we toyed with the idea of waiting to see Therapy play their Troublegum album but it was late and we were pretty wiped by then. We had an epic journey back to the hotel but arrived safely and had tea :)

A fantastic day and one to remember for a long time. The Hairy One would have loved it and I would have liked him to be there. He should still be in the air on the way to Vegas at present.... but that's another saga for another time.